The Lost El Dorado Gold Volumes I and II Book

I received this book through Goodreads First Read contest. Thankfully I didn't spend any money on it! I have to be honest and say that I was pretty disappointed in this book. It was hard to believe the same author that wrote my beloved "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" wrote this…this…boring crap of a book. Well, maybe the word "crap" is a little harsh. The book did get a lot of good reviews so it could just be me and my crazy opinions. I just could NOT get into the story at all. I found myself practically falling asleep before finishing chapters and having to reread paragraphs because I was drifting off. The main character, Lucy, decides to visit her home town and she falls head first into her family history when she discovers she has a great aunt who was banished from the family for participating in the women's rights movement and being arrested. The whole book is all about the letters she finds and the history of this long lost relative who she supposedly feels like she has a connection with. I just wasn't interested. I couldn't understand Lucy's need to keep on going back to the past when she had so much going on in the present. In fact, the author does little to make the present time interesting at all. I think it would have been much more appealing if the chapters rotated back and forth from different points of view, particularly from Lucy to Rose, which was the long lost great aunt. However, Lucy is the only one who "tells" the story. So much more could have been done to make this book more of a page turner. Family genealogy is only interesting if it's my own family. Other than that, I don't give a crap.